Isilon SystemsR, the premier provider of intelligent clustered storage systems for digital content, announced today that its Isilon IQ high performance storage system was selected as "Best Enterprise Class System" at the 2004 Storage VisionsT and Home Gateway Conference. In winning the award, Isilon IQ was selected over traditional and next generation enterprise class storage products. Judges for the Storage Visions awards, which include industry analysts and executives, selected Isilon IQ for its cost-effective, building block solution to resolving a major issue in content creation and document management - the exploding data storage problem as content is created and accessed throughout an organization. Isilon IQ also was recognized for delivering SAN-level performance with NAS-level simplicity, and unmatched ease of management among enterprise class storage systems. Isilon IQ stands apart in the networked storage field for its OneFST intelligent distributed file system, single global namespace and focus on high growth, high throughput digital content applications. Isilon IQ was designed specifically for companies in such industries as film production, digital music, digital photography, media delivery, bio IT, and oil & gas exploration. In conjunction with the International Consumer Electronics Show each year, the 2004 Storage Visions Conference focuses on the critical technologies, trends and market issues facing the digital entertainment industry. The awards were presented to companies advancing the state of the art in storage in the consumer electronics and media and entertainment industries, and to service firms that support those businesses. "We are honored to be recognized by the industry as offering the best enterprise storage product for customers with significant amounts of digital content," said Steve Goldman, Isilon president and chief executive officer. "We strove to create a storage system that could scale and perform unlike any other, that created huge single shared file systems, and that delivered real economic benefits unseen in traditional storage systems from the major vendors. This new award shows that the industry recognizes our efforts and we look forward to continuing our strong momentum with the industry and with customers in 2004." The 2004 Storage Visions conference introduced new trends and opportunities in content creation and distribution, consumer electronics, portable storage devices, digital rights management, content archival solutions, and home media and entertainment devices. Isilon participated in the conference as a presenter as well, educating audience members on the unique challenges companies face in storing the exploding amounts of digital content, and how the move to clustered storage architectures, distributed file systems, and open systems can significantly cut costs and unlock new revenues from digital content.